When we
look out upon the spiritual condition of this country and realize the fact that
it has moved away from the spiritual foundation upon which it was established
it is easy for us to be discouraged.When we look around us at the spiritual condition of our brethren who
were once faithful to the precepts of Jesus Christ but now have abandoned these
principles for denominational teachings, practices and whatever you want it to
be religion it is easy for us to ask Why Lord?When we look at our shrinking numbers, yes even in this congregation,
and see the result of sin, discord, disagreement, and brethren we know and love
putting personal preferences, personalities, and their feelings ahead of
spiritual unity in Christ we want to weep.We want to weep, if not in sorrow at least in frustration.It would be easy for us to let down our guard;
it would be easy for us to allow our faith to weaken and falter.If we allow the troubles and trials brought
upon the church by Satan to weaken our faith, should we feel as though we are
alone in our troubles?Far from it;
there are a number of examples in scripture but let us briefly consider three.First, God’s herald of his Son chosen and
inspired, John the Baptizer greeted our Saviour with these words:

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
John 1:29

But not too many
days later John had a completely different outlook:

“2Now
when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples, 3And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do
we look for another?” Matthew 11:2-3

John’s faith that this same Jesus
whom he baptized was the promised Messiah had weaken, John was in prison, he
was being persecuted and before too long would suffer the wrath of a powerful
enemy.

If we did not know this from
scripture we would hardly believe that the same person is speaker on both of
these occasions.In the first, he bears
witness to the unique mission of Jesus as the Saviour of men; in the second he
raises the question as to whether Jesus was really the one he thought him to be.
He wanted to know whether his disciples should look to another to fulfill the
prophecies of the Messiah to come.

The seeming contradiction in the passages
which serve as our text has created some varied and sometimes imaginative
interpretations.But when we consider
the fact that periods of strong faith and of deep and painful doubt can be
found in the same individual; the most natural and understandable explanation
is that even though John was chosen by God and guided by the Holy Spirit; he
was still a man.He was a person just like
you and I that can be lifted up by a strong faith, yet
feel the depths of despair when Satan works to shatter that faith.

I.The
fact is; this is a common experience among men.

1.The fact that faith sometimes falters, even
in the lives of the most devout and spiritual, is a matter of common
knowledge.John is only one
example.This can be caused by a number
of things:a.) Church troubles can
undermine the member’s faith.b.) The
struggle to preach the gospel in the face of error and rejection can try the
souls of preachers and faithful elders.In the early 1970’s the stand that my elders took against liberal
doctrines being preached and practiced in our area made us outcasts among
brethren once faithful.Personal tragedy
or loss of loved ones can weaken our faith in God.

2.In a world full of materialism and sin a
person has to be very careful to keep his mind from being diverted from God and
God’s way.We have to be careful to keep
our faces turned to the heavenly way and our focus on that ultimate
destination, heaven.We have to resist
turning ourselves to earthly goals that, at the moment, may appear to be more
appealing, more desirable to our human minds.This can happen to congregations as well as individuals.Buildings can become more important than
mission work; physical numbers can become more important than spiritual
strength.

When this happens and our faith falters, our difficulties are usually
just beginning.We can see this example
of Peter in Matthew14:25-33.In the fourth watch of the night, that
darkest period just before dawn of a dark and stormy night, Jesus comes to his
disciples’ ship walking on the water.Peter had the faith to step over the side and start to walk to meet his
Lord.But what happened?

“But when he saw the wind
boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save
me.” Matthew 14:30

Which Jesus did, but at the same time chastised this future apostle with
these words:

“…O thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt?” Matthew
14:31

3.We have other examples of great men of God
whose faith faltered:

Elijah in let his faith weaken:

I Kings 19:4 “4But he himself went a day’s journey into the
wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for
himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my
fathers.”

Simon Peter gives us yet another example:Peter confessed Christ, firm in his faith
that Jesus was the Messiah promised to Israel for so many generations.

Matthew 16:16 “And
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

But what do we have recorded in Mark chapter 14?While Jesus was being tried Peter denied him
three times.This man was chosen to be
an apostle of Christ, given the honor of preaching the salvation of mankind
from sin for the first time, both to Jews and Gentiles.But perhaps in his fear he could see himself
joining Jesus on trial and when he was asked if he was a follower of Jesus the
third time:

“But he began to curse and to
swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.”
Mark 14:71

II.But
what caused John the Baptizer to doubt?

1.John had begun his ministry as a stern,
rugged reformer, someone that we today would call a hard preacher and that many
of my brethren wouldn’t tolerate.For
example, we find recorded in:

Matthew 3:7 “But
when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said
unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath
to come?”

But the results of his preaching were just the opposite of what man
would expect.The more he rebuked and
condemned the sins of his day, the greater the crowds were that flocked to hear
him, and submitted to his teaching.The
more that came to be baptized at his command to prepare for the coming of God’s
kingdom. Thousands upon thousands of
people came from Jerusalem, Judea and the surrounding region of the Jordan valley and obeyed.

2.He had, as directed by the Holy Spirit
prophesied the coming of the Mighty One, the one who would thoroughly cleanse
his people and would overcome all evil.He would be expected to recognize Christ when he saw him as we have read
in John 1:29.But John, perhaps, had something in common
with other Jews of his day, the apostles included.They expected Jesus to raise an army or by
the power of Almighty God take over David’s throne and rule God’s people from
the city of Jerusalem as the kings of old had done.

3.Is it little wonder that when Jesus did not
do as perhaps John and others expected and overthrow the yoke of Roman rule
that his and their faith faltered?When
John asked the question recorded in Matthew
11:3; he was in prison.The evil in
Herod, the Pharisees and others, was still on the march and undisturbed.His own hopes and expectations were probably
shattered like a piece of crystal dropped on a concrete floor.

Is it much different today?When
most of us grew up the church was strong and growing.The word of God was being preached, men and
women were being brought to Christ and the church that Jesus built was the
fastest growing religious organization in this country.But today that isn’t true.A majority of those congregations of the
Lord’s church who were once faithful have turned to questionable or false
doctrines and practices and are stronger in numbers than ever.The gospel of Christ is being ignored or
misrepresented by multitudes on every hand from both within and outside of His
church.The people in this country who
know not God have grown in numbers far beyond anyone’s expectations.Things that are an abomination to God are now
in high fashion among men, supported, promoted and being forced upon us as
acceptable behavior that must be protected by civil law.Even those who do profess to know God grow
richer in this world’s goods and it seems that they never have to face the
troubles that we do.

4.Facing such as this is it any wonder that
our faith would falter?.Facing such that he had to face, sitting in
prison, not knowing when his life would be brought to an end is it any wonder
that John’s faith faltered?

III.But let
us make a couple of observations of the nature of John’s question:

Matthew
11:3 “…Art thou he that should come, or do we look
for another?”

1.When we look and reason carefully we can see
that these words contain more of a question than a doubt.There was doubt in his mind, to be sure, but
it hadn’t reached the point that it had caused John to give up completely.

2.His words, “OR LOOK WE FOR ANOTHER?” make it
plain that he still had hope.If Jesus
of Nazareth was not the promised Messiah, John was willing to continue to look
for him in the form of another and still expected that the Messiah would come, and
soon.

3.It is unfortunate indeed that some people
cannot experience disappointment, humiliation or even failure, without giving
up entirely.In I Kings 19:4 we have already observed that Elijah was beaten,
completely discouraged and was ready to die.

I Kings 19:4 “But
he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down
under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said,
It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my
fathers.”

Even though John, at this point, is
questioning his God given mission, at the same time he gives us an example that
we should heed.In prison, perhaps even
realizing that he would never be free again in this life, John could still
hope.Brethren, is there anything that
has beset us, even in our worse experiences that we cannot have hope as John
did?

4.There are a number of reasons why people
become disappointed in Christ, his church and his work.Due to the constraints of time we will only
consider two

They have been misled by wrong ideas and outright misunderstanding of
the real character of Christ, his church and the work appointed for us to
do.In another lesson recently we talked
about the purpose of the church, it hasn’t changed in 2000 years but men are
trying to change it daily.

People too often try to see Christ and the work of His church through
the needs and experiences of others rather than realizing that:

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians
2:12-13

Some people look at the church as represented by the local congregation
and see that it or some of its members do not meet their idea of what
Christians should be.They forget that
all men sin; all men fall short:

“FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD;” Romans 3:23

And that at the day of judgment:

“4But let every man prove his own work, and then
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5For
every man shall bear his own burden.”

Galatians 6:4-5

“Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his
own labour.” I Corinthians 3:8

2.People become disappointed in Christ because
they do not find in Christ all He is able to provide them.But when you analyze their situation you will
frequently find that the reason this is true is that they have not entered into
the Christian life completely.They have
not committed themselves to Christ in full, without reservation.They are not doing their full duty, they are
not seeking their full responsibility; in fact we might even say that they are
not yet completely converted to Christ.Paul wrote this to the Ephesian brethren:

Read Ephesians 3:14-19

If we seek the fullness of God, if we take his Word into our lives
fully; make God first (Matthew 6:33) in our lives then we can expect to receive
all of the blessing that being a child of His can offer but not until.

IV.Let us
also observe that in spite of John’s doubt, our Lord still held a very high
opinion of John.In his preaching to the
multitudes he told them this about John:

“But what went ye out for to see?
A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a
prophet. 10For this is he,
of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. 11Verily I say unto you, Among them
that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Matthew
11:9-11

1.The Bible plainly teaches us that God has
used imperfect human beings to accomplish his purposes; used them to even
accomplish great things.It is also
certain that he uses imperfect people today to accomplish his purposes, to
achieve the tasks needed to bring the greatness of his kingdom to mankind,
because there just isn’t any other kind.But what kind of imperfect people does God use?

Those with the hardheaded dedication of a Saul; he told Ananias “…GO THY
WAY: FOR HE IS A CHOSEN VESSEL UNTO ME, TO BEAR MY NAME BEFORE THE GENTILES…” Acts 9:15;
the boldness of a Stephen Acts 6 and
7; the wisdom of James Acts 15:13;
and the vast majority of us that are just ordinary people doing what we can
like Dorcas, Acts 9:36

Who will work at doing those things that God has commanded his children
to do?

God even uses those whose faith has faltered somewhere along the way
like Elijah in I Kings 19, but he
can’t use us when we are too weak to do his work.This is why Elijah was fed both physically
and spiritually (I Kings 19:5-8)
before God sent him on his way to do the tasks that He needed him to do.

2.So what answer did Jesus give the disciples
of John when they came to him in doubt?

Matthew
11:4-6 “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show
John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5The blind receive
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6And
blessed is he, whosoever shall not be
offended in me.”

What further proof could we seek
then or today?What further proof could
John ask for to convince him that Jesus was indeed the Christ, our Lord?What more proof would we want to take Christ
into our hearts, his teaching into our lives and become living citizens of
God’s kingdom; God’s children?But the
great trouble with many is that they are unwilling to receive that proof and
put it to the test.

Maybe we are just a little bit
afraid…afraid that we will appear fanatical if we take the teaching of Christ
seriously and put it into practice in our daily lives.Perhaps we just don’t want to be different
that those folks all around us.But what
does Peter tells us?

“But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye
should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into
his marvellous light: I Peter 2:9

We are what?We are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; we’re supposed to be what?Oh, we have a problem with that!We don’t have any trouble with the first two;
perhaps we don’t even have much problem with the third admonition to be holy;
but peculiar?We don’t really want to be
that different, do we?We look at folks
who are different with a jaundiced eye.We whisper among ourselves; “he or she is strange”.We shy away from making those kinds of people
our friends.As we begin to close out
this lesson I challenge you to look at your life and think about these words.

V.What do
we do when our Faith falters?

1.When faith falters meditate on Paul’s words:

“13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

2.When faith falters and we walk the darkness
of this world in fear, follow the light of the world:

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am
the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life.”John 8:12

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin”. I
John 1:7

3.When our faith falters and we need the
strength of our God:

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”Philippians
4:6-7

4.When faith falters remember the words of the
Hebrew writer and look to our Saviour:

Read Hebrews 12:1-6

Has your faith faltered? Have you stumbled in the way and in need to
come to God in confession and repentance?Do you need to go to God in prayer publicly for sin?

Are you a child of God?Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God? (Mark 16:15-16), are you
willing to repent of all of your past sins (Luke13:3, 5); are you
willing to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God before men (Matthew 10:32); are you willing to be
baptized to wash away all of your sins (Acts
22:16) and become one of those that God adds to His church (Acts 2:47)?

Now, this moment, is the only time
God has promised us, if you need to come to him; do that now!